Robert Rodriguez has raised the bar for what’s cool and acceptable in the all-too-placid world of the kids film market. The director elicits natural and engaging performances from the movie’s child stars, but even they take a back seat to the film’s wonderful array of spy gadgets, set design, and overall focus on fun. Now that the movie proved itself a hit, Dimension has decided to sink a few million more into the picture and release this “special edition” theatrically instead of just saving the added footage for the DVD release. Reports say that one of the new sequences will feature the kids swimming through a cave full of sleeping sharks a sequence that was filmed but cut from the original release because the effects were simply too expensive in post-production. For further spy instructions see www.spykidsspecialedition.com.
This article appears in August 3 • 2001.
